Romance Dawn
by Kyough
Summary: Monkey D. Luffy worked as an assassin for the World Government under his grandfather Garp the Fist, Hero of the Marines. However, after finding out about the heinous acts of the tenryuubito and the World Government itself, he decides to apply for an extended vacation where he meets the wanted runaway Nico Robin. Will he tell on her and catch her or will he fall in love with her?
1. Chapter One: Moving in

**Chapter One: Moving In**

Chapter Notes: -

**A/N:** -

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece and all the characters related to it.<strong>

All of the characters belong to Eiichiro Oda.

However, it would be safe to assume that I own the characters that you don't recognise and are not found on the official One Piece Wikia.

I apologise in advance if I get some information wrong. I am not as well informed as I should be. Do point them out and I will either revise it or keep it there for consistency.

Please review, this is my second fanfic and is running concurrently with my first one.

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><p>She was hungry - starving, in fact.<p>

Her beautiful dark hair had gone unwashed for weeks and as a result, had gone unpleasantly and uncomfortably greasy. She stank of body odour from not having taken a shower as well. But she didn't have time to worry about that.

She ran as fast and as far as her bare feet could carry her, occasionally injuring herself due to sharp objects scattered all over the ground. She ran, just as she had for twenty years. She was running out of breath and her lungs felt like they were bursting, but she ran.

She couldn't let them catch her now. Not when she was so close to finding out about the secrets of the Rio Poneglyph.

She saw a tall, large fence in the distance. It had sharp, pointed edges to keep away unwanted trespassers, but behind the fence she saw a dense forest. She could hide there.

"Hana hana no mi!" she gasped.

Immediately, multiple copies of her hands sprouted from the ground and started forming a foothold for her as leverage for herself to jump upwards over the fence. She didn't want to injure herself and lead her trackers to her through her blood drips.

Hiding herself behind one of the trees, she could hear the loud, synchronised footsteps of the soldiers chasing after her. Then, she heard one of the grunts say, "Admiral Akainu, Sir! We lost track of the target."

The burly man scratched his bearded chin for a few seconds before taking out a cigar and started smoking it.

"Hm, don't worry about it too much. She will turn up eventually. After all, it's not as if anyone will be willing to become her friend. Besides, I wasn't really hunting her. I was merely on vacation when we chanced upon her."

And with that, Marine Admiral Akainu signalled for his troops to retreat.

Heaving a great sigh, Nico Robin forced herself upright. Even though the danger had passed, she was still in danger of passing out from hunger, which was not good because if someone found her, they would probably take her to a hospital whose staff would then alert the marines. 80-million belli on her head was, after all, a very alluring sum for the underpaid nurses.

Her stomach rumbled but in a turn of luck, her nose caught a whiff of delicious cooking. She started heading towards the direction of the smell.

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><p>The sun was high up on the sky, blazing down intense heat on the asphalt streets.<p>

There were no four seasons here. Only the heat of the dessert sun in the morning and the freezing cold at night. The Kingdom of Alabasta had a harsh climate to its residents, but was nothing more than part of what makes it Alabasta - a tourist attraction, boasting the most prosperous casinos in the whole of the grand line - to the tourists.

The scent of the salty sea stuck to the teen's nose even though he had already gone far inland.

The Kingdom of Alabasta was a peaceful kingdom. It was once plagued by civil war, but thanks to the teen and a special group of people, the kingdom was saved from its demise and had now prospered.

Of course, the kingdom's people didn't know that apart from its royalty. It was due to this and the heat which sometimes caused people to do stupid things that the teen found himself being questioned by one of the law-makers - the marines - that stood as sentries in addition to the king's personal guards.

"Keuhum! So your name is Luffy, you say? And your address is in Foosha Village…" the marine asked apprehensively. That was a far way off from here! The teen didn't look trustworthy so there was always that possibility of him lying.

Sweat pouring down his head as he examined the teen's identification card, the marine took a quick glance at the teen's large backpack and concluded, "You know, kid, you really should cut me some slack here."

"Ehh? But I told you already, my name is Monkey D. Luffy!" the teen argued.

Very skinny yet tall like a bamboo, the teen looked more like a kid with an innocent face. Apart from his scar, of course. The scar on his cheek changed everything such that the marine thought that he was a trouble maker.

"Right, and your purpose for being here?"

"I told you already, I'm moving in. This luggage is everything I own!"

"And I've asked you as well, what's your new address?"

"Wouldn't have a clue," Luffy replied back so casually, even digging his nose with his pinky finger.

The marine finally lost his cool and barked, "LOOK HERE YOU! I'M TRYING TO BE NICE HERE. CAN'T YOU PLEASE, JUST COOPERATE?!"

The marine took deep breaths, trying to calm himself down and cool himself as well from the heat.

'Where did you come from?', 'Where are you going?', 'What's your purpose?' Depending on the context, the marine's questions were pretty run-off-the-mill. To him (and in fact, for all of the marines), if you were wandering around without a clear-cut business, you were by default a criminal of some sort - let alone Luffy who was carrying a suspiciously large red bag.

"Okay," Luffy agreed (which finally got a relieved sigh from the marine officer). "My name's Monkey D. Luffy. I came from Foosha Village.

If there was a table, the marine officer would have definitely flipped it over - a thousand times at least. They have been standing under the hot, blazing sun with rays probably more cancerous than being exposed to nuclear radiation for over ten minutes and they were back to where they started from. In fact, they haven't even moved from where they were starting from because of Luffy's stubbornness.

"Look, kid. I'm it's almost time for lunch. I'm hungry, you're hungry, how about you cooperate and we can both go our separate ways - if you prove to be innocent, that is - and we can have our lunches."

"Did you say lunch? That's great!" Luffy beamed.

Feeling that he could exploit that statement, the marine officer readily rode along with the flow of the conversation. "Yeah, kid. Lunch. Hey, tell you what, why don't we go together to the marine base and we can both have our lunches there?"

"You mean for free?"

"Yeah. For FREE!" he emphasised on the word.

Jumping up in joy, Luffy grabbed on to the marine officer's collar and started walking towards some random direction.

"Hey, what? Let go of me kid! The marine base is on the other direction!"

"Ah, is that so? Why didn't you tell me from the start? Let's go! Meat, here I come!"

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><p>It didn't take long for Luffy to be placed in a smelly, dark room. There was a desk in the middle of the room and he sat on one side while the officer sat on the other.<p>

"Hey, officer, where's the meat you promised me?" Luffy grumbled.

"Oh, you don't need meat, you straw-hat wearing bastard. There's plenty enough in your bag as it is!"

"Hey! I didn't give you permission to go through my bag!"

"Suck it up, kid. Now tell me, what are you planning to do with that much meat in your bag?"

Luffy's lips puckered and stretched extremely to the left side of his face. "Dum dee dum~ I don't know what you're talking about."

"YOU CLEARLY KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" the officer screamed. He sat down on the chair and massaged his temples. This teen was giving him a headache.

"You know, officer, you must be very bored to be spending this much time with me."

"Are you mocking me?"

"No, it was a compliment! If the town's marine force is bored enough to spend this much time on a random person loitering around the street with a large backpack, that means the town must be pretty peaceful, isn't it?"

The marine officer sighed. There was no use talking to this person. Thankfully, he was expecting backup soon.

A muscular man entered the room. He had white hair, his marine uniform open to expose his well defined torso, and in his mouth, he was puffing three cigars apiece!

As soon as he entered, the room was filled with smoke. He put down a snail-looking like thing called a Den-Den mushi on the table gently and he looked at Luffy with a piercing glare.

They both stared at each other for a few seconds before the man dismissed the marine officer with an almost inaudible, "You may go now." Then he turned to Luffy and said nicely, "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say and do can be recorded and may used against you."

All of a sudden, in contrast to his gentle actions earlier on, he grabbed hold of the back of Luffy's head and slammed it on the table.

"WHO ARE YOU? TELL ME OR I WILL SLAM YOUR HEAD ON THE TABLE AGAIN."

Luffy grunted out, "My name is Monkey D. Luffy."

Not satisfied, the man lifted Luffy's head up and banged it on the table again before leaning closer to Luffy's ear and shouting, "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can be recorded and may be used against you. WHERE DID YOU COME FROM AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THIS TOWN? TELL ME OR I WILL BANG YOUR HEAD ON THE TABLE AGAIN!"

"I came from Foosha Village. I'm moving in to this town."

The same thing happened as with the marine officer earlier, Luffy and the man went round and round in circles with the questioning until the Den-Den mushi made a "Didit Didit" noise.

The man picked up the receiver and said rather impolitely, "Hello, Smoker here. What do you want?"

Then, his face relaxed and his tone became considerably lighter. "Ah, yes. I have him here, right in front of me, Vice-Admiral. Yes, yes. I got it. Alright, bye."

He turned to look at Luffy with a glare again but, as if against his will, said, "Well, looks like you're free to go now, kid."

"Really? I can leave just like that?"

It was amazing! Despite the scare tactics, the teen could still remain so calm.

"Yes. I got a call from your grandpa. I didn't know that the hero, Vice-Admiral Garp himself had a grandson. What's more, I didn't know that you were part of the secret marine crew "The Straw Hats" that helped save this town."

"Oh, I'm not supposed to tell you that, but since gramps did, whatever…"

Smoker grunted as if in disapproval before making a hand gesture that clearly meant "fuck off and go". As he was on his way out, Luffy heard Smoker tell the marine officer earlier to guide Luffy to wherever he was headed off to and to not ask any questions.

"Well, that escalated quickly," the marine officer commented.

He knew that the marine base captain in Alabasta, Smoker, had a strong sense of justice and was not a person that could be bribed, therefore he concluded that he could trust the straw-hat wearing teen and that he was definitely not a troublemaker, despite not being informed of the circumstances.

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><p>As soon as they arrived at their destination, the marine officer bid Luffy a pleasant day and left, whistling leisurely as he did.<p>

"_Man, this town really is peaceful,"_ Luffy thought.

He worked for his grandfather, Garp the First. Hero of the Marines and the one and only person who managed to catch the legendary pirate king Gol D. Roger. He worked for him under a special division called "The Straw Hat Pirate Crew" which essentially is a pirate crew but had similar privileges as the Royal Shichibukai.

Contrary to the Shichibukai, however, the Straw Hat Pirate Crew division worked as assassins for the World Government, their biggest rival in the same faction being the Cipher Pol division.

He had grown tired of his life as an assassin for the World Government once he found out what sort of scum the tenryuubitos really were and so he asked for an extended vacation on the pretence that he wanted to enjoy the last year of his life as a non-adult by studying formally and mixing around with people his age - something he had never done before.

Throughout his seventeen years of life, he had always been in and out of the battlefield, assassinating revolutionary leaders and anyone who opposed the World Government and the tenryuubito, so his grandfather readily agreed and helped petition for his request which was granted on the special condition that should he be called for work, he had no option but to say yes.

It was easy enough plus he got paid for those 'cleaning' jobs, so he didn't mind as long as it wasn't frequent.

While he was reminiscing about his past, ready to leave it behind for a new one, a tall, beautiful, dark haired woman stood right next to him and gave him a hug.

"Luffy!" she exclaimed. "It's so wonderful to see you! I hope you haven't forgotten about me since you saved me from getting my secret exposed."

Boa Hancock. Though she was considered as the most beautiful woman in the whole of the four seas and the grand line, she had a secret. She was a slave to the tenryuubitos before she made her escape along with her sisters thanks to the chance granted to her by a certain Tiger Fisher. Due to this, she hated all men afterwards until she fell in love with Luffy for helping her keep her secret when it was almost exposed.

"Ah, Hammock! It's nice to see you too! But shouldn't you be managing your school? After all, being the principal of an all-girls school isn't a trifle, you know."

Hancock blushed and started rubbing her body and her legs together. It always made her wet just hearing about Luffy's voice.

"Oh, don't be like that, I asked to be the principal of two schools just so I can be with you, darling."

Failing to notice what Hancock calls him, Luffy could only smile widely and say, "Ehh? That's so cool! You're amazing, Hammock!" which made Boa Hancock explode inside with happiness.

"Anyways, I'll give you a tour of the school," Hancock said.

She took Luffy around the school and showed him the classrooms, the buildings, the gym, the pool, the courts, the flower gardens and the cafeteria.

"Is it just me or is the place empty?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. I'm aware of your case since you were assigned to be my guard after all (though I hated you for it at first until you saved me from getting my secret exposed). Just so you know, there's only four students other than yourself that goes to this school. Your superior (Garp, your grandfather), pointed out that it would be hard for you to transition into a normal school, so you were placed here. This is, in fact, a special school that caters for those who need special attention."

"Ah, is that so? Well, alright then."

As usual, Luffy didn't question anything much and just went with the flow of things. He was free as the wind yet deadly as a typhoon when it came to it. That was one of the reasons why Boa Hancock was drawn to Luffy in the first place.

"By the way, Luffy, those four students that I talked to you about? Well, they're all girls, and the maker and owner of this school actually made this school for his daughter so he only had a girl's dorm built. No matter how much of a special case you are, he isn't willing to build a male dorm just for you so you'll have to stay in the girls dorm along with everyone. It makes me sad to think about it, darling, but we have no choice," Boa Hancock complained.

Not too bothered by anything, Luffy simply shrugged his shoulders and said, "Ah, okay."

"Alright. Let's start with the tour!" Hancock said excitedly.

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><p>Nico Robin stuffed food in her mouth like there was no tomorrow.<p>

She was very hungry and had followed the smell of food cooking until she encountered a house. A dorm, in fact. Using her Hana hana no mi's abilities, she placed a duplicate of her eyes all over the place and made sure that the coast was clear for her to enter. She placed safety about everything else despite her hunger. She couldn't afford being caught.

Good, so far, there was only one person inside the dorm and that was a blue-haired teenage girl that was lying down on her bed on her stomach reading her book. Apart from her, there was only an over-sized duck in the same room that wore a beanie. The coast was clear and so Robin entered the house as stealthily as she could, following her nose to the smell of cooking food. Whoever was cooking left the food on the stove to simmer on low flame and she thanked her lucky stars that the food was already cooked.

As soon as the food touched her lips, Nico Robin forgot all about safety and being hidden. She hadn't eaten in weeks and the food, simple as it was, tasted heavenly to her. She just munched away, ignoring how hot the food was and even went to the fridge for more!

Luffy and Boa Hancock were taking a tour of the school when Luffy made the comment about being hungry and wanting food.

"Ahh, that marine officer told me that he would give me food if I went with him to the marine base, but in the end he didn't," Luffy complained. "Man, I'm so hungry!"

Boa Hancock was prepared. She was the principal of the school, but that didn't stop her from accessing the dorms and cook something for her beloved.

"I knew you were going to take your time and be late, so I made some food for you. In fact, I left it on low flame just now so that it will be nice and hot when we're done with the tour."

"Do I have to wait for the tour to be finished or can we eat it now?" Luffy asked eagerly, his eyes flashing images of meat.

"You can eat now if you want, darling. We can finish the tour later," Boa Hancock said with a blush on her face. It felt so good to be useful to the one that she loved!

"Oooh~! Does it have meat in it? Meat!"

"Yes, dear. I put lots and lots of meat in it!"

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Luffy grabbed Boa Hancock by the hand and locked fingers with her, which made Boa Hancock's heart beat wildly in excitement and joy. He then dragged her to the direction of the scent of food.

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><p><em>End of Chapter One<em>

_To be continued..._


	2. Chapter Two: Classmates with a!

**Chapter Two: Classmates with a...?!**

Chapter Notes: -

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><p>There was a loud crash where a metallic pot fell on the floor, spilling its hot contents all over the place.<p>

The scene playing out was a shoulder-length haired woman striking a fighting stance, ready to defend herself at any moment's notice from the two people that just entered the kitchen.

In fact, it was wrong to say this since it was the shoulder-length haired woman that was the intruder and the two that just entered the kitchen were the residents.

"Darling, stay back!" Boa Hancock said with a forceful tone, her hands outstretched as if to protect Luffy from the stranger.

The tall, skinny, straw-hat wearing teen's eyes became that of when he hunted down criminals: narrow and cold, devoid of any warmth. He exuded a killer's aura that sent chills down both the women in the room's spines. However, after a while, this frightening aura subsided.

"Ah, my bad, my bad," Luffy apologised sincerely, smiling sheepishly as he did so. "I'm just so terribly hungry that I didn't take it well when I saw you spill the food. Ahhh~," he sighed. "Look at all that meat you wasted."

The shoulder-length haired girl did a couple of backflips to distance herself away from the teen. In her mind all she was thinking was to figure out a way to get away from this place safely. "_That teen isn't normal,"_ she thought to herself.

However, before she could go on any further, Luffy stretched out his arm and caught her by surprise.

"Where do you think you're going? You're the cook here aren't you?" Luffy smiled widely. "What's your name?"

Nico Robin didn't know whether the straw-hat wearing teen was dumb or not, but either way, she remained apprehensive and wary of both of them. Though she remained silent, Boa Hancock spoke instead.

"I think you're misunderstanding something, Luffy-dear."

"Oh, is that so? Well, I certainly thought she was the cook. She must be the helper of the house then!" Luffy insisted.

Knowing that Luffy would not give up the case, Boa Hancock could only sigh inwardly and shake her head slightly. "That's the nice way to put it, but no, she's the maid."

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><p>It was a few minutes later after the incident. Boa Hancock recooked everything from scratch for her beloved Luffy but she made a bit of extra for the girl too at Luffy's request.<p>

"She looks hungry doesn't she?" Luffy observed. "Hey, you look like you're about to pass out. Come and eat with us. You can have one of my meat. Just ONE by the way."

And so, Boa Hancock led the stranger into the kitchen to get her to help her with the cooking. Of course, she wasn't very happy about it since she wanted to make everything for Luffy herself but it couldn't be helped. If Luffy insisted that she was the maid, then that's that and all she could do was to let the act continue by getting her to do her duties as a "maid".

As soon as they were out of sight and out of hearing distance, she pulled the stranger to the side and started in a dangerous tone, "You may have fooled my fiance, but you're not going to fool me. I know who you are… Nico Robin."

Nico Robin looked back into the towering woman before her's eyes. She had been used to people looking at her with loathing and hatred as if she was a plague or an object or a tool for their use. However, she could not detect any signs of that in the woman's eyes. Instead, all she saw was that of a woman who wanted to protect her lover from being stolen by another woman.

She was confused of the events that transpired, but she concluded that the place seemed like a good place to hide from her pursuers. Much like how she skipped from person to person, she decided that this would be her next place of refuge until she could no longer stay anymore. However, she always kept her guard up just in case.

Nodding her head slightly in acknowledgement, she said, "Very well then, Master."

Boa Hancock huffed angrily. "I don't want to be called that."

"Then what should I call my employer?"

"Oho~ So you understand that due to my fiance's whim, you've come under my employment. Very well, call me Boa Hancock. As for your pay… I'm a fair woman. Though giving you food and shelter for free should be a fair enough exchange, I'll be paying you the minimum wage for maids. Of course, I expect you to take care of everything that comes with the title."

Nico Robin acknowledged.

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><p>Luffy waited… not patiently, but not impatiently either… for the food to be cooked. His stomach grumbled loudly and it took all of his effort to sit down and wait for the food to come.<p>

"Nico Robin, huh?" he muttered aloud, audibly enough only for himself to hear.

The intruder hadn't introduced herself yet, but he already knew and was mulling things over. He could give away her location to the Marines and gain even more credit, but he thought it too troublesome to do. Besides, memories of the heinous acts of the tenryuubito were still fresh on his mind and he found himself questioning what he was really fighting for.

Was it for the world to be a better place?

He didn't really know. Whatever it was, before he knew it he was already slipping into a depressive state.

"Oh, what do we have here?" a rather bossy, annoying voice came up directly close to his ear.

He turned to see who the voice belonged to and saw a pink haired girl's head coming out from his shoulders.

Huh?

His shoulders?

"EEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHH?!" he exclaimed in surprise before leaning away from the strange apparition so much that his chair tilted sideways, crashing and hurtling him towards the floor.

"G-g-g-ghost!"

As soon as she heard her beloved's panicked voice, Boa Hancock dropped everything that she was doing immediately and rushed towards Luffy's location.

"What happened darling? - Oh, hi there Perona," she greeted the apparition (or was it a girl?) casually as if this wasn't something out of the blue.

"Principal!" the ghost girl pouted. "How rude, this stranger just called me a ghost! More importantly, who is he anyway?" she demanded.

"Oh him? He's Luffy. He'll be your new classmate from Monday on," before adding under hear breath, "And he's my fiance too."

Fortunately, neither Perona nor Luffy heard the latter part as both of them could only stare at each other with their faces filled with terror.

"Eeeh?! You mean to tell me that I have a ghost for a classmate?"

"What?! I've never heard anything about a new classmate, much less a GUY!"

They both shouted simultaneously.

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><p><em>End of Chapter Two<em>

_To be continued..._


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